TV (Television) and Video

English Language IPTV for U.S. Viewers (Big Table)

For inclusion in my table, shows must be streamable on Demand or live in U.S.A.
without a cable, satellite or other aggregator subscription. (I have randomly
included some common channels that require a subscription).
I omit Adult (e.g., X rated) channels.
Not a completely comprehensive list!
Classified by whether free, and by content.
Also recommended: Roku boxes include many channels not listed here. They are much
easier to use than Kodi apps and Android TV boxes.Cautions: Many channels exist to push specific political or religious
positions, or to host informercials, and will seem biased to people of other
affiliations, often including myself. Much of my info is incomplete, out of date or
incorrect. When categories are seperated by commas (e.g., General, Religious
affiliation), that means the station includes both categories, in decreasing order
of frequency.Free? Abbreviations
Free=Free on demand episodes (no credit card needed; more than just teasers - though in some cases, only recent episodes are free)
SomeFree=Some episodes are free on demand (I won't list this if there are only short clips, or a few teaser episodes)
Sub=channel subscription required
Agg=Aggregator (e.g., Cable, Satellite...) Subscription Required
Agg/Sub=Aggregator or Subscription Required
LimTFree=Limited viewing time Free at once
Live=Only Live available
PPV=Pay per viewView with A browser (+optional add-on or extension)that sees videos (not
necessarally optimal; only tested on websute if subscription required), specifically
Chrome and/or
FireFox and/or
IE (Microsoft Internet Explorer) [Note: Chrome+Flash, FireFox+Flash, or Opera+Flash may work instead of IE+Flash if you set the browser to allow Flash on that website] and/or
Kodi and/or
flash and/or
Silverlight;
"App" means requires an app; ? means I couldn't check

Paid TV Channel Bundle Subscriptions
YipTV $50/year Latin America channels
MHz Choice $8/month International mysteries, dramas & comedies with easy-to-read
English subtitles
HBO Now $15/month HBO's own on demand TV/Movie service
Xfinity Instant-TV $18/month (Available only to Comcast Internet subscribers);
Channel Lineup same as Cable Basic
Philo $16 and up/month
Sling TV $20 and up/month Live & on-demand TV channels;
Local Channels
The channel list on the home page deceptively includes extra-cost items. accurate prices are listed here.
Cloud DVR service with also extra, though recent episodes on most channels on demand
are included at no extra charge in basic service. CloudDVR only works on these devices!, another gotcha omitted from their home page.
Techhive review of SlingTV, with Replay table
Youtube TV $35/month;
Another link
fubo $40+/month ($20/1st 2 months)
DirecTVNow $35-$70/month Live & on-demand TV channels,
Channel Lineup;
See Also Here; As of 12/17 - 1/18, had serious reliability problems.FreeView is stated to be Free - but, all were ads for DirecTVNow.
Hulu with Live TV $40+/month Live & on-demand TV Channels + standard Hulu
Playstation Vue $40-$75/month Live & on-demand TV channels
Techhive review of Playstation Vue
Layer3TV $75+tax Initial price
Disney will soon have it's own paid on demand service
(So, will Disney soon be dropped from other company's bundles?)
USTVNowFor Americans abroad only. Promotional price $19/month (free
option for some channels.) DVR $29/month. Long-term price unspecified. I contacted ABC, CBS, NBC and fox to find out if USTVNow is legit, but have received no reply.
Playon A software IPTV DVR for Windows PCs. My Review: PlayOn
is great as far as it goes. It lets you record On Demand programs on some IPTV channels, as
files, that other software can
play, and can skip ads. It is worthwhile if you can afford it. But
it's priced per device, not per user. It works on a limited subset of available Internet Explorer viewable IPTV,
(the PlayMark feature fixes that on a limited subset of the rest), a subset that will
decrease, as more broadcasters find ways to make ad skipping and automatically saving
recordings impossible. It can't use Sling TV. PlayOn's ads say
imply you can watch CBS All Access, Hulu and SyFy free - but it requires paid
subscriptions for most shows. I love subtitles, but Playon often doesn't allow that,
even if the broadcaster does, or doesn't let you set backgrounds to be transparent,
obstructing video. It can cast to your TV through devices like Roku, but only if you set a networked PC up in an extremely insecure fashion, and cannot record from such devices.
(NOTE To record as a
non-administrative user, use PlayOn -&gt Settings -&gt Advanced -&gt Storage Location to
store them in a folder that that user has access to.);
PlayOn Support Forums
(Click on community).

TIVO - probably the top end Over-The-Air (OTA) or
cable channel DVR (Digital Video Recorder), because they include a nice program
guide (an expensive service, unless you buy a used one with Lifetime service).
(Note: old VCRs, while they are very cheap used, can't record modern ATSC OTA and
QAM cable TV signals. But I have also used a DVD Recorder to record modern TV
signals.) Tivo Series 3 were the oldest units that can handle modern ATSC and QAM
signals - and all need cable card adapters to handle cable signals. There are other
brands of DVR, with much harder to use program guides.Video processing Software
(YouTube) Audio and Video Downloader
(for Firefox; YouTube doesn't want downloads to work; If it doesn't, update
it and try again tomorrow)
Video DownloadHelper (for Firefox, many websites; same remarks on what
to do if doesn't work.) Kodi.tv
A free IPTV streaming app - mostly used by hackers; inconvenient and trouble prone.
I switched from this to PC web browsers and a Roku box. The biggest problem with Kodi
is how it deals with delayed or dropped packets. In particular, sections of Sound,
Video, and subtitles often go missing, and also go progressively out of sync, making
the content incomprehensible. Good protocals and software pause until the missing
packets can be retrieved, and use them all. In addition, it should be easy to rewind
in 8 - 10 second steps, in case you missed something. The "," key on an external
keyboard is supposed to do this, but it doesn't always work.Note: You can find many "Kodi" or "Android TV" boxes on-line at
eBay or Amazon, that can be used to watch TV and movies from various sources
over the Internet, without a PC. From experience, many are fake or don't
work, and have no or useless support - I suggest you restrict yourself to orders
from top rated sellers from
your own country. AFAIK, the main Kodi site, kodi.tv
only contains software that
is legal in the U.S., so if you restrict yourself to software drawn from that site,
it is probably OK. For the most part, you can get rid of pirated software by
completely de-installing and re-installing Kodi, but be careful - if the box has
an out of date version of the Android operating system, that may not work - and
you will need to reset the box to factory settings. There may be a menu option to
do that; on many Android TV boxes, there is a reset switch inside the AV or audio port
that you can reach with a toothpick. And any such changes are done at your own risk -
the box may not work when you are done.
Kodi Wiki Manual e.g., includes list of supported devices
Kodi Wiki: HOW-TO:Modify the video cache so audio and video don't stutter (i.e., start and stop).Example of advancedsettings.xml
for Kodi 17, assuming lots of (flash-based) memory available. Also turns off flash
image to
speed kodi start-up. Goes in a directory named something like kodi/Userdata or
.kodi/userdata.
Kodi Keyboard Controls
GeeXboX - a small (can even boot from a CD or jump drive), very fast Linux-based operating system
that can run Kodi. I tried this because Kodi on a windows PC running on a
(slow) Atom CPU kept stuttering despite using the above advancedsettings.xml. Couldn't make it work, but a lot of people love it.
LUbuntu, another small, fast, Linux-based operating system that can run Kodi, as well as Firefox
and Chrome web browsers. This works, for the most part - but you still need to
know how to use Linux.
Apple iPod software

Other Cordcutting resources
Cordcutting.com On-line magazine, discusses non-cable TV distribution The Great Big Cord Cutting Manual For Cost Conscious Consumers
Roku IPTV streaming boxes. I love the simple, consumer-friendly interface.
Sure, some things could be better: the only way to take text input (e.g., for
searches) from a real keyboard is to connect it to a smart phone, on which you
install the remote app; it would be nice to be able to sort the apps alphabetically.
But if you have struggled to use Kodi
and Android TV, these are much easier and more intuitive to use, and solve the above
problems. Plus, everything works. And you can be
reasonably sure that anything you find by searching for new channels is legit, not
pirated. There are other brands, some cheaper. As of this writing, I use Roku's low
end
Roku Express box (use the Express Plus if you have an old TV with AV jacks, but no
HDMI, or maybe [not tested!] if you want to record out of your Roku into an old VCR
or a DVD Recorder). It works well, supports almost all the legit IPTV sources, and
is about $30 -
but be sure to connect it directly to your TV, not through an HDMI switch with an LED light, and to
use
the factory USB power source, or one rated to over 1 amp, or it will eventually fail and say
there is
something wrong with your power source. I wish it could take an external keyboard
for program and channel searches. It can sort of use the Roku SmartPhone remote app
as a keyboard - but it is very clumsy.Broadband Internet
You need Broadband Internet to stream video, and you want something pretty close to
an unlimited data package. Streaming video is about 3 - 10 Mbit/sec = 1.35-4.5 GB /
hour = 251.1-837 GB/month if you view 6 hours/household/day, depending on quality
and resolution. Note that most "unlimited" plans actually charge extra, throttle
your data rates, or disconnect you if you use too much. Add to that all the extra
overhead (e.g., Windows PCs take a lot of data just to stay up to date). It would be
very easy for a household to go over even Xfinity's 1 TB/month plan. Nonetheless,
cable and phone companies are good starting places to look. Wireless data plans are,
for the most part, too expensive or too limited. Some local WiFi services look
plausible - but may have limits now or in the future.